Back up and sync your game saves with Dropsync for Android
I have only talked about Dropsync before on another site, but Bryan has talked about DropSpace. Both DropSpace and Dropsync are apps that deal with syncing files with Dropbox, allowing you to link local device folders with Dropbox folders. While DropSpace is only a one way deal however, Dropsync allows you to both sync local files to Dropbox and the other way around. That opens up for a lot of potential uses, where my most used setup is to have it sync both photos and screenshots from both my tablet and phone to separate folders in my Dropbox as soon as the files are created. Whenever I need an Android screenshot for an article, for instance, I just hit the screenshot button, put my device away, and grab the file on my computer – Dropsync handles the in-between.
Being able to sync two ways, Dropsync is however capable of a lot more than just uploading images. A new need for the app’s expertise arose today as I was tinkering with getting N64oid set up on my Galaxy S II phone and realized all my save files were on the tablet. A bit of tinkering and an email to the Dropsync developer about a bug later, and my N64oid save files are now synced between devices automatically. I can pause a round of Mario Kart 64 right in the middle of the race, do a game state save, and continue playing the rest of the race from my phone.
The way you set this up is both simple and complicated. Simple, because all you really have to do is to set Dropsync to sync the save game folder with a folder in Dropdbox on both devices (same Dropbox folder). and complicated because exactly how an app handles save games completely depends on the app – or game rather. For N64oid it was relatively simple, and just a matter of finding the hidden .n64oid/save/ folder on the internal memory of both devices and syncing that, but you might very well be looking through hundreds of randomly name, unsorted files with some games. I would advise against syncing files that aren’t just saves, as there might be device-specific data in those folders that you don’t want on another device. In other words this is a “try and see, at your own risk” type of deal.
As for the bug I was talking about, that was simply something with the initial sync causing Dropsync to believe that files had been changed at the same time on both devices, creating duplicates. It was a one time thing, and has worked fine ever since. It’s important to note though that this obviously can’t merge save files, so if you have save games you want to keep on both devices, you may have to pick one. I deleted all the files in the save folder on my phone before doing the sync, ensuring that only the tablet’s saves survived.
This can also be used as a simple backup system, skipping the multiple devices/same folder setup and just syncing save games to a Dropbox folder and keep them there in case something happens. Since Dropsync can be set up to sync automatically, that will ensure that you always have a backup of the latest save files.
[Google Play free | $6.50 Pro]
